LUKBAN
the way to the man’ s house. In the dusk the scouts were mistaken for insurgent soldiers by the natives, and by the time the teniente and his people, who lived in six small houses in a clearing, recovered from their surprise, they were prisoners of Repasa’ s squad. For the third time, Strebler’ s scouts did not fire a single shot.
One of the natives attacked Corporal Repasa with a bolo, but the latter, though surprised, dropped his rifle and went at his man in bolero style, with his bare hands. Corporal Briones who was nearby came to his comrade’ s aid and killed the bolero by breaking his head with the butt of his rifle. Repasa surrendered to Strebler the teniente of the visita, four men, four women, three children, and the latest reports of insurgent chief to Colonel Guevara, including a few recent letters from Lukban to Antonis and the ordnance stamp of Company C, Ninth U. S. Infantry. Most of the residents of the visita had fled.
On the afternoon of the 17 th, another scouting party brought in four men, who had a basket of rice, a box of clothing, some dried carabao( water buffalo) meat, about three pesos in copper coin, one peso in silver, and two pesetas and a letter from a teniente of a barrio on the upper Yava for Col. Claro Guevara. These four carriers were to deliver these goods to Teniente Antonis, who was to forward them to Guevara. When grilled, Antonis disclosed that Lukban had left Tamay on the 1st of February and gone to Matarag near Matuguinao where he was then supposed to meet Guevara.
So Strebler decided to proceed at once to Matarag, estimated to be three days’ hike southwest of Yava and try to get Lukban and Guevara together. On the 18 th early morning, they started out with 30 scouts of Strebler’ s company, a corporal and four men, a medic, a civilian scout, and 30 carriers with eight days’ rations. He left 10 scouts, an American soldier and three civilian scouts, under of Sgt. Tomas Estolero, with the prisoners, carriers, and the rest of the rations in camp near the house of Teniente Antonis.
At around 11 a. m., as the advance guard approached the entrance of a large cave, one of Lukban’ s messengers emerged from its depths. He was quickly seized. Under interrogation, the messenger produced a letter from the guerrilla chief, written two days earlier addressed to the teniente of Yava. He told Strebler that he got the letter that morning from the teniente of Maleju, another village close by. By then Strebler was certain that he was on the right track. So he told his scouts to double their pace lest their quarry escaped. He had to find that teniente.
At around 4 p. m., the advance team espied an outpost about 200 yards ahead. Strebler’ s scouts silently surrounded the outpost and captured Teniente Pedro of Maleju, with his Remington and 50 rounds
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